UTICA, New York – As Russian tanks rolled into the Republic of Georgia and the presidential candidates met over the weekend in the first joint issues forum of the fall campaign, the latest polling includes drama almost as compelling - Republican John McCain has taken a five-point lead over Democrat Barack Obama in the race for President, the latest Reuters/Zogby telephone survey shows.

McCain leads Obama by a 46% to 41% margin.

The result is especially staggering because Zogby had Obama up by seven in July, which was also an outlier. But other polls have shown similar moves in direction if not magnitude. Look at the decline among subgroups. Obama lost nine points among Democrats, eight points among women, 11 among Catholics and 11 among city dwellers.